I can't say for certain, but I'll take a stab at an answer that isn't just "to cut costs obviously lmao".

Part of the purpose of these ecological initiatives is to figure out ways to do things at scale without the need for industrial waste/pollution.

Second, it is best practice in most any industry to create and optimize the process by hand BEFORE figuring out how to optimize it with heavy industry. If you begin the design under the handicap of a machine, then your entire design is founded on that crutch. You can always incorporate machinery, but it's often more difficult to remove it from any process once it's been integrated.